A NightingSparrow Fic
by Placenta
Summary: "She was so happy. Happy enough that she didn't realise what she was doing. Her hand just sort of did it by itself. She didn't mean to hold Lawrence's hand." A fanfic following Sally Sparrow's and Lawrence Nightingale's relationship after Blink. Fluff for now, but I might change the rating later on as the story progresses.
1. Chapter 1

Sally Sparrow was happy. Not sad-happy. Just happy. She supposed that meant she wasn't thinking very deeply right now, but really, she couldn't care less. She had just met the Doctor: the man who gave her the information she needed to escape the weeping angels. Well, not exactly, but he helped. She was so happy. Happy enough that she didn't realise what she was doing. Her hand just sort of did it by itself. She didn't mean to hold Lawrence's Hand.

She didn't regret it, no, of course not, but she didn't like it either. Was it because she didn't like him? She didn't think so. She liked him very much. After all, they had owned a book shop together for almost a month now, and she certainly wouldn't make that kind of commitment for someone she _didn't _like. But that being said, Sally didn't _love _Lawrence. At least, she didn't think she did. Now, he looked down at their interlocked fingers, and smiled, giving her hand a little affectionate squeeze. Now, the pair of them were waving the Doctor off, hand in hand. And Sally Sparrow was to blame.

She was blushing a deep scarlet by the time they had walked back into their little book shop. _Oh god, _she thought,_ what on earth did I do that for? _She took back her hand rather abruptly and looked anxiously at the floor, causing Lawrence to cock his head in confusion.

"Sally?" he started gingerly, "What's wrong?" She shook her head and turned up the corners of her lips to mask the tidal wave of thoughts whizzing through her mind.

"Nothing." she lied. Lawrence grinned.

"Okay, good," he paused as if trying to think of how to phrase something delicate before continuing, "Are we, um, _together_ now?" Sally swallowed some dry saliva, and twiddled her thumbs awkwardly. _Well, are you? _A voice in her head asked maliciously. She sucked in a sharp breath.

"Er... no." she said with an apologetic expression etched into her usually jovial face. Lawrence's smile faltered.

"Uh, okay then, that's cool. But what was that before then?" he stammered.

"I'm sorry, Lawrence. I just... can't right now." she said.

"So... later then?" Lawrence asked hopefully.

She couldn't help but giggle. Lawrence was just like a lost, little puppy sometimes. It was really quite cute, she had to admit. She decided it was best to change the subject now, rather than say something that could put her in a messier situation, or make her feel any more guilty than she was now.

"I'm going to the shops. Anything you need?" she asked, walking over to the desk to pick up the brown eco-bag from behind it.

"Uh... tinned soup and... some sweets?" he replied. She nodded. It was a bit chilly outside, so she picked up her jacket from the back room where she slept and shrugged it on. She stepped out into the fresh air and shut the door behind her, before walking down the footpath. Once she had gone ten metres, she almost laughed at herself. Her and Lawrence's relationship was so strange. They owned a bookshop together; lived together; hell, she even shopped for the both of them. But they weren't together. He had asked her before, many times, but she had said no to all of them. _"It's just a bookshop, nothing more.",_ she always had to remind him.

"Shopping for your boyfriend again?" Penny teased when Sally entered the corner shop. Penny owned the tiny grocery store, and had known Sally ever since she had moved into the area, about 6 years back.

"For the last time, Penny, Lawrence is _not _my boyfriend." Sally mock scolded her.

"Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot You two are 'just friends' who own a shop, live together, have meals together, work together, blah, blah, blah." Penny joked, "So what can I get you today?"

Sally pointed to one of the rows of bread loaves behind the counter, "One of them please, and some other bits and pieces."

She ticked off items on her messily-written list as she took them off the shelves and balanced them in her arms. Penny bagged her bread and scanned the groceries for her, putting them in Sally's bag. Sally fumbled with her wallet, trying to find the right card, before handing it to Penny, and then taking it back when she had paid.

"So you'll be coming to the pictures on Saturday with us then?" Penny asked.

"Should do, if I don't have anything else on. I'll have to check my calendar, but I think so," Sally replied, taking her bag from the countertop, "Bye, Penny!" She waved as she exited, making the little bell on the door ring again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Hello! Here's the next chapter. Thanks to Mayumi-H for her wonderful review! And to everyone else reading this, please, if you can, take some time to tell me what you think of the story, as it really does help. Constructive criticism is always welcome! Thank you,**

**Emma :)**

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Sally pushed open the door to the bookshop with one hand, while holding the groceries in the other, which unsurprisingly required some effort. Lawrence got up from behind the desk to help her but by the time he got to the door she had managed to get it open and step indoors. She mumbled a 'thank you' anyway and carried the bag into the kitchen they shared.

She took out the milk, butter, and yoghurt and put them into the already overstocked and likely-to-fall-apart-any-day-now refrigerator. Lawrence followed her into the kitchen and put the tins and packets in the pantry. "So, um, sandwiches for lunch?" he asked, picking up the bread.

"Yep," Sally said, "Don't wait for me though, I've got to write up that ad for the paper." Lawrence nodded and began stockpiling all sorts of sandwich ingredients on the bench. Sally walked up the annoyingly creaky stairs to the top half of the house and her bedroom. She sat down on the bed, and closed the door with the tip of her toes from where she was sitting. She pulled out her teensy laptop from underneath the bed and opened it up.

While it started up, Sally found herself thinking about Lawrence; _What if she had said yes this morning? Would it really be so bad? No, _she shook her head, trying to clear her mind, _Why am I even considering this? And for that matter, why did I decide it was a good idea to __**hold his hand**__? _Ugh. It was too much to think about now, but deep down inside her (Yes, she really does go that deep. She's a deep person, remember?), she knew that these unwanted thoughts would come back. Anyway, she had an ad to write, and the crummy laptop had finally decided to wake up.

She opened up the form for a newspaper ad and began to fill it in. She enjoyed filling in forms and surveys; they were fun, in a way. She didn't know why, but they were. Perhaps it's because she just likes telling people things they don't know. She reached the bottom of the page and saw the prices for ad sizes. _Jesus, _she thought to herself,_ ₤100 for a tiny little ad? _She wondered if they'd even get enough customers from it to make it worth anything. Nevertheless, she sent it to the local paper to be published.

She checked the colourful clock on her wall: 3.26p.m., it said. Well, a late lunch is better than no lunch. She stepped down the stairs again and back into the kitchen, where Lawrence was nowhere be seen. Funnily, she felt almost disappointed. She made herself some spaghetti on toast. She wasn't in the mood for sandwiches. And even if she was, it looked as if Lawrence had eaten all the tomato anyway. She laughed quietly; There were about three left, and he had eaten them all! Her toast popped up and she buttered it while she waited for the spaghetti to cook.

After she had finished lunch, Lawrence was still not in. _Wasn't he supposed to be minding the shop?_ Feeling a bit annoyed, she took a seat behind the counter. She lifted her head up when she heard someone enter the shop. "Larry, you're back!" she said, getting up when she saw him, "But where were you? You were supposed to be on shift!"

He winced, "Sorry, I thought you had it under control since you were home."

"Home, but upstairs! Someone could have come in without me noticing and stripped the shop bare!" she argued.

"Well, they didn't, so that's good, right?" he said.

She sighed, exasperated, but said in a lighter tone, "But they _could have_!" She waited for some kind of excuse, which didn't come, "Never mind then. But you have to do an extra hour at the start of my shift since I had to watch the shop in yours."

He sat down in the chair Sally was in before and put his feet up on the counter. Sally hit him lightly on the leg.

"I've told you to stop doing that!" she said, and he took them down. She walked a few metres back into the kitchen before realising that she actually had nothing to do. She backtracked and sat back down next to Lawrence.

"Hey, I thought you didn't want to watch the shop." he said jokingly. She frowned, but couldn't hold it and laughed softly.

"Nothing better to do, so why not?" she said, spinning back and forth on the chair.

"So does that mean I don't have to?" Lawrence asked, a cheeky grin on his face as he stood up and attempted to get away.

"No!" Sally said, and yanked him back down into his seat. She knew it was irrational, but she also knew she was stubborn; she couldn't help it. It was his turn, so he had to stay. Lawrence laughed at her and, contagiously, she started to laugh too. They stopped chatting after a little while, until Sally broke the silence.

"You, sir, are in _my_ chair." she said.

Lawrence shrugged, smirking. "It's my chair now." he said.

"It is not!" she said determinedly, standing up and childishly trying to rock him off the chair. He held on tight enough not to fall out. It was evident how bored they both were, but now they were starting to have fun. Sally spun the chair around, until Lawrence almost died of laughter. "No, stop!" he protested, and she let go. "Fine," she said, "If you're not going to get out of my chair, I don't care." and she sat on his lap, trying her hardest to be as heavy and uncomfortable as possible.

As it turns out, Lawrence was just as stubborn as she, and they ended up staying in that position until six o'clock, when the bookshop closed, watching funny animal videos on the store PC.

Sally got up and skipped over to the door to flip over to 'open' sign to 'closed'. "Your turn to cook tea." Lawrence reminded her from the seat. "Ugh." Sally groaned, "Can we just get take aways tonight? I honestly would rather sleep on a bed of nails than prepare a meal right now." Lawrence shrugged, and she took that as a yes. She dialed up the number of the chinese place down the road, and placed her order. It would be ready in fifteen minutes, but she thought she might as well walk down now. The air was chilly when she got outside, so she hugged herself and rubbed her arms to keep her teeth from chattering too much as she walked.

She felt great when she got inside the take away place; it was as if she had just stepped into a cozy blanket in front of a fireplace. She had no trouble waiting the extra ten minutes it took until their food was ready. In fact, she almost didn't want to go back outside at all.

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**Author's note: Okay, that's it for now. I'll update the day after tomorrow at the very latest. Please, please, please review! I really want to know how I'm doing so far. Goodbye! :3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: I'm really really sorry for the late update! I had a bunch of stuff to do :P Sorry it's kinda short, but I think I ended it where it needed to be. Once again, please review. It encourages me to write more, and I'm a massive procrastinator so I'll need it.**

"Uhhh..." Sally was almost speechless when got back to the bookshop; When she entered the living room, there was a humongous stack of DVDs sitting in the middle of the floor, just in front of the television. She put down the takeaways on the coffee table and opened her mouth to speak. She closed it again and cocked her head at Lawrence, who was laying on the couch.

Apparently, he hadn't heard her come in. She cleared her throat, to which he shot up to a sitting position. "What's all this, then?" she asked.

Lawrence shrugged and said simply, "It's your birthday present. You were _clearly_ in need of more DVDs, I mean-"

Sally laughed at herself. _How could she forget her own birthday? _She guessed after all that with the weeping angels she must've just completely forgot about it. But really? She was never the type to forget birthdays, especially her own. She even remembered those of her _second cousins! _

"Aw, thank you Lawrence, but you really didn't have-"

"You only had _seventeen_! And I thought-"

"to. Isn't it too much? There must be at least 5 new ones there!-"

"we could have a movie marathon. Y'know, as friends."

Sally grinned and wrapped her arms around Lawrence's shoulders. She had to bend down since he was still sitting. "Thanks." she said genuinely, and sat on the couch, only to get back up again to fetch their food.

"You're welcome." Lawrence said, not quite sure what to do with his arms.

They couldn't be bothered getting plates, so they ate out of the little polystyrene boxes. The reason Sally didn't have many DVDs in the first place, as it turned out, was that she really had no idea how to work the player. After a few embarrassing attempts, she gave up and finally allowed Lawrence to try. He got it working in no time, and they settled down on the couch with their spring rolls and Sweet 'n' Sour chicken.

The movie was long, but not too dull, so Sally managed to keep up with the plot without too much effort. After a little while, about 20 minutes in to the second film (Star Wars, which was not quite to Sally's taste), Lawrence got up to take their empty food packets to the bin. When he got back, he settled back down a little closer to Sally. She noticed, and smiled a bit to herself. She saw out of the corner of her eye that he had an expression on his face not unlike the one he always wore when he was trying to think how best to phrase something.

"Err, Sally?" he asked, somewhat awkwardly.

"Yeah?" She took her eyes off the screen to look at him.

"Is now... later?" he asked.

She gave him a confused expression. "Sorry, what?"

"Well, um, this morning you said, well, I said, actually, but you didn't correct me, that, erm, later you might possibly consider... dating me?" he stammered.

"Err, what?" Sally said, a little taken aback.

"Sally, please don't make me ask again." he pleaded. She smiled maliciously and shook her head.

"I didn't quite catch that?" she teased.

Lawrence cleared his throat quietly and asked in a slightly more confident voice, "Sally Sparrow, will you do me the honour of being my girlfriend?"

She pursed her lips in thought and tapped her chin with her index finger. _Should I? _she honestly had no idea where this would put their friendship, but now that she thought about it, she actually wanted to say yes. _Should I? _she thought, trying not to show on her face how flustered she was getting. _Oh, what the heck..._

"Alright," she said, after hesitating for a moment, "We'll give it a go." Lawrence beamed, and Sally giggled. Once again, he looked just like a puppy. But this time, one that had just got to meet a new playmate, or perhaps had discovered a miniature mountain of chew toys.

He hesitated and then awkwardly lifter his arm and put it around Sally's shoulders. She bit her lip and blushed before leaning into him. He was warm, and smelt vaguely of laundry soap. She lay her head on his chest for the rest of the film, and for most of the next one as well. He made little ringlets in her hair with his fingers, which she liked, and moved his hand back to her shoulder, where he drew little patterns. She closed her eyes wearily as the credits rolled for one of the films, and placed her hand next to her head, on Lawrence's chest.

Finally, she drifted to sleep to the dull beating of Lawrence's heart.


End file.
